In my previous post on Quick and Easy CSS @font-face Code, I provide a choice set of CSS rules for embedding custom fonts into your web pages. It’s a solid, cross-browser technique that works great, but as Marty Thornley pointed out, it would be useful to have a more thorough explanation of how the code actually works. So, rather than going back and adding a bunch of additional information to the original post, I’m following up with a visual walkthrough of the @font-face code.

In step-by-step visual format, this article will show you what the code is doing and how to use it with your own custom fonts.

Step 1: Declaring the @font-face rules

The first thing we want to do is copy & paste the quick and easy @font-face code into our stylesheet:

@font-face { /* declare fonts */
	font-family: "MuseoLight";
	src: url("fonts/Museo300-Regular.eot");
	src: local("Museo 300"), local("Museo-300"),
		url("fonts/Museo300-Regular.woff") format("woff"),
		url("fonts/Museo300-Regular.otf") format("opentype"),
		url("fonts/Museo300-Regular.svg#Museo-300") format("svg");
		}

Yes, it’s a hideous-looking chunk of CSS, but that’s not going to stop us from using it to embed our own custom fonts. Let’s break it down and see how the different parts fit together..

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I’ve been using custom fonts in my designs for quite a few sites now, and have refined what seems to be an ideal chunk of CSS code for implementing the @font-face rules. Some of the sites that include these rules include Perishable Press and Digging into WordPress, which look more stylish and refined with the custom fonts in effect. I’ve tested this code on quite a few browsers, including the following:

• Safari 3.1+
• Opera 10+
• Firefox 3.5+
• Chrome 4.0+
• Internet Explorer 6+

This technique delivers your custom fonts quite consistently to all of these browsers, and degrades gracefully for those that don’t support it. Of course, there are always weird exceptions contingent in particular scenarios, but overall it’s a solid chunk of code put together from much research, experimentation, and testing. I share it here hoping it will help others implement custom @font-face fonts quickly and easily. Let’s step to it..

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After announcing my intention to redesign Perishable Press, I received some great feedback addressing everything from site architecture and navigation to appearance and usability. As the conversations continue, I want to spend some time thinking about usability, navigation, columns and sidebars. The current minimalist design features a single column layout with no sidebars. Content is located prominently front and center, with all navigational links appearing in either the oversized “footer” area or at the end of each individual post. As several people have pointed out, such navigational strategy (or lack thereof) discourages visitors from digging deeper into the site. Apparently, the pile of links at the bottom of each page — the menu, as I like to call it — requires far too much effort to decipher. I mean, really, just because it all makes perfect sense to me, doesn’t mean that everyone else will “get it” too.

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Here are a few sIFR Notes for Perishable Press. Just what are we looking at here? Well, first it is important to understand the sIFR variables and the order in which they should appear:

(sSelector, sFlashSrc, sColor, sLinkColor, sHoverColor, sBgColor, nPaddingTop, nPaddingRight, nPaddingBottom, nPaddingLeft, sFlashVars, sCase, sWmode)

The variable, sFlashVars consists of the following sub-variables (these should be seperated with an & sign:

# Align Flash text block
textalign=center
# Moves text any number of pixels to the right
offsetLeft=3
# Moves text any number of pixels down
offsetTop=3
# Adds underline links when hovered
underline=true

Then, inducing from the following code example, we should place a similar set of statements at the bottom of any pages requiring sIFR functionality:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!--

if(typeof sIFR == "function") {
   sIFR.replaceElement("h1", "http://domain.com/path/to/fonts/font1.swf", "#E1E1E1", "#FFFF99", "#CC6633", "#333333", 0, 0, 0, 0, null, null, "opaque");

   sIFR.replaceElement("h2", "http://domain.com/path/to/fonts/font2.swf", "#CC6633", "#FFFF99", "#CC6633", "#333333", 0, 0, 0, 0, null, null, "opaque");

   sIFR.replaceElement("h3", "http://domain.com/path/to/fonts/font3.swf", "#E1E1E1", "#FFFF99", "#CC6633", "#333333", 0, 0, 0, 0, null, null, "opaque");
}

//--><!]]>
</script>

Arguments may also be stated by name rather than sequentially:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!--

if(typeof sIFR == "function") {
   sIFR.replaceElement("h1", named({sFlashSrc: "../path/to/font.swf", sColor: "#777", sCase: "upper"}));
};

//--><!]]>
</script>

Here is another example using the named arguments method:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!--

if(typeof sIFR == "function") {
   sIFR.replaceElement(named({nWidth:333,nHeight:33,sSelector:"h3.class-h3", sFlashSrc:"http://domain.com/fonts/font.swf", sColor:"#333", sLinkColor:"#777", sBgColor:"#FFF", sHoverColor:"#DDD", sWmode: "transparent", nPaddingTop:0, nPaddingBottom:0}));

//--><!]]>
</script>

Finally, here is the default CSS supplied with sIFR:

/* sIFR Print CSS | Hide Flash headlines from the browser */

.sIFR-flash, .sIFR-flash object, .sIFR-flash embed {
	display: none !important;
	position: absolute;
	overflow: hidden;
	height: 0px;
	width: 0px;
}
span.sIFR-alternate {
	visibility: visible !important;
	position: static !important;
	display: block !important;
	left: auto !important;
	top: auto !important;
}

/* sIFR Screen CSS | These are standard sIFR styles -- do not modify */

.sIFR-flash { 
	visibility: visible !important; 
	margin: 0px; 
}
.sIFR-replaced { 
	visibility: visible !important;
}
span.sIFR-alternate { 
	top: 0px;
	left: 0px; 
	width: 0px; 
	height: 0px; 
	display: block; 
	overflow: hidden;
	position: absolute;
}

/* Decoy styles used to hide the browser text before it is replaced */

.sIFR-hasFlash h1 { 
	letter-spacing: -2px;
	visibility: visible;
	font-size: 32px;
	height: 40px;
}
.sIFR-hasFlash h3 { 
	visibility: visible;
	font-size: 18px;
}

References

• sIFR Documentation at novemberborn